StoryRavi (Allu Arjun) is an intelligent youngster who doesn’t believe in the concept of working hard for long term profits. He wants quick bucks because he is extremely brainy and takes any risk to achieve it. Bittu (Sonu Sood) is a gangster who robs 1500 crores from a bank. The paths of Ravi and Bittu intersect during a night. The rest of the story is all about the duel between these two guys and how Ravi realises the importance of working hard and long-term growth.

Artists PerformanceAllu Arjun By looking at the title, one may expect comedy from Allu Arjun in this film. But Trivikram has unvieled the angle of 'action hero' in Allu Arjun with Julayi. Allu Arjun is extremely good in action sequences and is terrific in comedy situations. He matched the might of Brahmanandam in comedy scenes. The characterization is done in such a way that it suits the body language of Allu Arjun. He has amazing ability to make the most difficult movements look so easy. Hence once you watch Allu Arjun’s dance, you notice the ease and grace, but not the effort. (people would say entha baga dance chesadu, nobody will say entha kastapadi chesadu).

Ileana looks unglamorous (part of the script) during the beginning of the movie. She has shed too many inches (Trvikram had a satire on her looks as well in the movie) and doesn’t carry the same charm she once used to have. Her work is pretty good. Sonu Sood is perfect as the bad boy. He could be the hero of this film if you take out a few bad things from his characterization. Rajendra Prasad is good, but his heavy make-up/dramatization makes him an odd guy among the actors. Tanikella Bharani is wonderful as a hardworking middle class father who wants his son to be happy (This dialogue summarises his love to son - Okappudu nuvvu bagundalani korukune vaadini. Ippudu nuvvu vunte chaalu anipistundi.). MS Narayana is very good with his expressions. Rao Ramesh gets the role of an intense cop and he did well. Brahmanandam entertains really well as a thief getting rehabilitated in the home of a police officer. Brahmaji does a role with grey shades. Kalpika is cute. Hema and Pragati are good. Raghu Babu, Ali and Vennela Kishore have minuscule roles. Udayabhanu sparks as an item girl for a few seconds in the title song.

Technical departmentThe basic story is the mind game between two men. Each of them can read the mind of the other person. Trivikram has added a nice family backdrop, a heroine and good humor to the character of hero. There is one dialogue in the film where the father asks the hero - ‘neeku bittu ki (villain) theda enti?’. That summarizes the characterizations of hero and villain. There are gray shades to hero character. The initial scenes of the film are inspired by Dark Knight movie and you can see shades of Italian Job in the climax scene of transferring container containing money. It is a typical Hollywood action film kind of plot with a bit of Telugu commercial elements (family backdrop and entertaining humor) thrown in.

Screenplay of the film is very good. I liked the way he connected scenes in the first half with the scenes in the latter half of second half. The classic shot for me in the entire film is the ‘bhairavakona radio story’ - Trvikram’s touch written all over it. Direction is pretty good. The only emotional scene in the film is the conversation between the father and son in the hospital. It was well conceived. He lets the conflict of hero and villainrun throughout the movie and never made his humor dominate the main conflict point of the movie. However, hero has his aces up the sleeve all the time and dominated the villain throughout hence making the conflict one-sided. A few action sequences and orientation of heroism should have been toned down to make it little more realistic. The scene of having 1500 crores as hard cash in a bank is highly unbelievable. The hero taking over the duty of cops and doing it for them looks unrealistic. But Trivikram is a magician who narrated the movie in an entertaining way so that we can ignore the logic. Trivikram hasn’t compromised on the script and you can see intelligence written all over the characterization of the hero. He balances his trademark sensibility/humor with right commercial elements.

Dialogues by Trivikram are awesome. The greatness about Trivikram’s dialogues is that there is neither a pattern nor any repetition in the way he writes humor and punch dialogues. When you listen to them while watching they sound refreshing and it’s pretty hard to remember his dialogues once you come out of the theater.

Music by DeviSri Prasad is an asset to the movie. The songs are very good though most of the tunes are of heard--before type. I liked all songs and loved the way Trivikram inserted a few scenes in the middle of O Madhu song. The last song gives the perfect high we need for pre-climax episodes. It is a completely different and good background score from DeviSri Prasad and his music never dominated the scenes. Cinematography by Naidu brothers (Chota and Sam) complements the movie. Their work is excellent.. Art direction by Ravinder is satisfying. Editing by Pravin Pudi is smooth. Action sequences by Peter Heins are beautifully choreographed though they look superficial at times. production values by the new producer S Radha Krishna are grand.

AnalysisFirst half of the film is thoroughly entertaining. The second half is all about the duel between the hero and villain. It’s good. Plus points of the film are Trivikram’s work (dialogues, direction and screenplay), Allu Arjun’s seamless performance and entertainment value. On the flip side, a few logics and the super-hero orientation to hero character should have been taken care of. On a whole, Julayi is an intelligent action entertainer with Trvikram’s brand humor. Go and watch it!